Blog category

Search Engine Optimisation

Meta Descriptions – are they necessary?

August 6, 2008

It’s common knowledge that the content of a web page’s meta Description has no bearing on its placement on search results pages. So are they worth bothering with? The short answer is Yes.

Keyword research with Wordtracker

June 11, 2008

Wordtracker is a web based tool for identifying the search terms that are being used by search engine visitors. Its wealth of analysis features will tell you search term popularity, alternative relevant terms and strength of competition for those terms.

Track your website traffic with Google Analytics

June 8, 2008

Google Analytics is a tool provided free by Google that allows you to monitor visitor activity on your website. You can see where your visitors have come from, how they reached your site, where they went on your site and how long they stayed.

Black hat SEO is unethical and risky

June 6, 2008

There are two types of search engine optimiser – White Hats and Black Hats. The White Hats follow legitimate best practices to achieve high rankings based on the credibility and merit of the website. Black Hats pursue seamier tactics to try and fool the search engines into awarding high rankings. These tactics may produce some limited success but will more likely result in the website being (sometimes severely) penalised. The search engines employ very sophisticated mechanisms for detecting such practices. Do not be tempted to try any of the following, stick to ethical SEO.

Search engine friendly web pages help spiders and people

June 4, 2008

Whilst a website’s design should be aesthetically pleasing, it mustn’t compromise on functionality. Functionality includes ease of use, compliance with disability accessibility legislation, copy that conveys your message and search engine visibility. These aspects are inter-related. Designing for one will help with the others. So making a website search engine friendly will contribute to its usability, accessibility and readability.

Where to get backlinks

June 3, 2008

The most valuable backlinks are those from pages on reputable, relevant sites that include a keyword phrase in the anchor text and contain few links to other sites.

Link building is credibility building

May 29, 2008

A website’s search engine credibility is measured in terms of its perceived importance by other websites. Other websites consider a site to be important by linking to it. Acquiring those inbound links, or votes for credibility, are vital to achieving high rankings on the search engine results pages.

Strategic keyword placement for optimum results

May 14, 2008

Stuffing every keyword phrase into every nook and cranny on the home page is definitely a bad idea. The phrases should be strategically allocated to specific pages and placed (but not excessively) in the page elements that are most important to the search engine spiders.

Research the keywords that will attract high value visitors

May 13, 2008

Keywords are the search terms that people key in to the search engines. The goal is to discover those terms and to embed them into the right places in the right quantity on your web pages.

10 SEO benefits

April 28, 2008

Why should I bother with SEO? Well the first and most obvious benefit is that you will attract more business through qualified leads. But there are other benefits you can obtain along the way. It takes effort and patience, but optimising your website for search engines can bring a variety of rewards.

The nuts and bolts of SEO

April 17, 2008

Do it right and the results can be remarkable and very rewarding. Do it wrong and your site could be banished to obscurity for a very long time. Search engine optimisation is all about researching, building credibility, reaching your market, establishing your niche and maintaining position.

The spin-off benefits of SEO

February 27, 2008

The SEO process can reap a number of indirect rewards in addition to achieving high rankings on the search results pages.

Are article directories good for SEO?

February 18, 2008

One of the main tenets of search engine optimisation (SEO) is to get other sites to link to your site. But I cannot stress highly enough that those links must come from reputable sites and be relevant. Acquiring links from any old source just to build up quantity simply won’t do; they may actually harm your ranking. But getting good quality links is easier said than done.

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